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Monday, January 30, 2012

Splendour in Stone

The following are some picture from Lepakshi Temple located in Ananthpur District in Southern Andra Pradesh. There are about 70 pillars in this fabulous 16th Century temple, but this one made of stone in the Vijayanagar style. Much of the temple is built on a low, rocky hill called Kurmasailam- which translates to tortoise hill in Telugu, after the shape of the hill.

Once you reached the temple's outer enclosure, you will see a mammoth Ganesha - hewn in stone and leaning against a rock. Perpendicular to it is a massive naga with three coils and seven hoods. It forms a sheltering canopy over a black granite Shivalingam.

The temples main deity is Veerabhadra, the fiery god created by Shiva after the Daksha Yagna and Parvathi's immolation. There are several forms of Shiva here - a majestic Kankala Murthi, Dakshinamurthi etc. This temple is also the finest specimens of mural paintings of the Vijayanagar kings. From Hyderabad, it is about 480 kilometers and about 130 kilometers from Bangalore.

A monolithic Nandi

Shivalingam sheltered by a seven-hooded Naga

The elaborately carved pillars of amandapam in the temple

In early era, they were built several this type of structures by carving stones. But now we can't even think about the construction of sculptures by using stones.The reason is now people are become very lazy and they are now concentrating to earn more money without putting more efforts. Now tourists from inside and outside from our country are enjoying to watch this type of sculptures built during decades ago and wondering about the quality of the work.